We're off!

We are on our way to getting our baby girl! It's so hard to believe this day is here. The last week as we have prepared to leave has been a mix of emotions. It has been exciting as we have counted down the days. As the last couple of days have come and gone it has been hectic and stressful at times as we have made last minute preparations. As we gathered the paperwork we needed it has also filled us with great emotion and excitement of seeing our baby girl. As we looked over the dozen or so pictures and remember how our hearts felt when we saw her face the very first time.
As we prepare to leave we are looking forward to so many things. Of course we are all looking forward to seeing her. We look forward to seeing some of the history and the sites; The Great Wall, Hutong Lanes, the Forbidden City. Landon is stilling looking forward to a moon cake. For me, I look forward to adding a new continent, a new country, and 3 new cities to the places I've ran.
Watch the blog over the next few days as we hope to post pictures and updates of whats happening.
This post was typed on my phone so please forgive and misspelled words or grammatical errors. It's almost impossible to proof read on here.

Adoption

We are counting down the days until we see Addie for the first time. We are so excited. Adoption is a topic we have talked about a lot lately.  Most people have questions of how it works? Why Adopt? Why there? Why not here? Others ask about the progress, how much longer? Any new pictures? And a host of other questions, and we usually try to answer  to the best of our ability. We love to talk about adoption. We love to tell our story and how everything has happened, and how God brought Addie into our lives. As we have walked through the last 16 months I have seen and experienced God in ways I never imagined. We have watched as details were worked out at just the right time. It has not all fit into my plan, and some of it I'm still unsure why it happened the way it did. But we have seen so clearly that God has been in control of each detail, even when we felt like things were out of control. 




I love when we talk to people and they ask why we are adopting? Why spend the money? Why travel so far? There are a few questions I really don't like, but these are my favorite. I can tell them because this is what has been done for us. Galatians 4:4-7 says, "4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” 


To adopt Addie we could not just show up and say we want her. There is a process, things have to happen in order. When all the steps of the process are complete and the right time has come we can bring her home. In much the same way when the time was right God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us. He has given us the right to be sons and daughters of God. This changes everything. We are given a new a heritage and a new inheritance.


 As beautiful as the picture of adoption is don't miss the fact that life did not start well for Addie. At about three weeks old someone left her in a box with a change of clothes on the doorstep of an orphanage. She was left alone and abandoned. She had little hope and no future. There was no one who would call her there own. Statistics tell us she would have aged out of state care and become involved in drugs, crime, prostitution, or trafficked. Her life was not looking good. But all of that is about to change. We will go and make her apart of our family. When no one else wanted her, we said we do. I will love her and care for her for as long as I am on this earth. In that moment that she legally becomes ours there will be a huge change. She will have a new family, she will have a new heritage, and a new inheritance. Its more than just a change in citizenship, she is a part of our family. We are anxiously waiting this day.


In this I hope you see this is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. Just as there are cost involved in earthly adoption, there was a price to be paid for our redemption by God. The cost was extremely high, it cost God his only son. There needed to be a perfect sacrifice. He lived the sinless life we could not. He came into the world as fully God, yet in the form of a baby and he was fully human. No other person that has ever walked the earth met the qualifications needed to redeem mankind. When we are adopted into his family everything changes. We are given a new heritage and a new inheritance. We can call on God as Father. Romans 8:15-17 tells us we are children of God. And since we are his children we are his heirs and joint heirs with Christ. Salvation is not the end of God pursuing us, but the beginning of a relationship that will last for eternity. What we want people to see is the reason we adopt is because we have been adopted by God. Its not that there is anything about us, it is all about the God we serve. In 1 John 4:19 it says, "We love because he first loved us."


The question I would ask everyone is have you been adopted by God? Not have you signed a card, walked an aisle, or said a prayer. Do you know God as your Father? Of all the questions in life this one is of great importance, because the impact of it is not just here and now, it's for eternity.